It's hot in here today. The best form builders fight for the title of the most convenient and functional.
Why you need a form on the website
Ok, let's start with the basics.
A webform is an HTML form, located on the site and needed to collect visitor’s data.
When you leave your email to receive newsletters, when you fill in the data to receive some kind of information, when you leave feedback – all these are interactions with the webform.
Accordingly, the site owners need the form to receive data about visitors and use it for their own purposes – lead generation, sending birthday emails, whatever. The user database is a ground base for any marketer and a ready-made platform for effective advertising of any kind. Never neglect this tool.
And to not spend a lot of time on its creation, you can use any plugin that suits your needs from this list.
Form builder plugin necessities
Now I want to compare form builders in one understandable table. Before we compose it, let's define features such plugins may provide and how they work.
Form Fields
All the plugins on our list provide basic fields – text, date, URL, and email. More advanced fields vary from plugin to plugin:
- Checkboxes
- Radio button
- Date field
- Time field
- Range field
- Calculated field
- Repeater field
- Hidden field
- File upload
Of course, there are more possible types of fields like Wysiwyg and more, but let’s limit our list to those mentioned above.
Features
Sure, all plugins on the list help you unlimitedly create different kinds of forms. Here is the list of other possible features:
- Drag and drop – most common builder but yet not all plugins support it
- Front-end editor – a beginner-friendly feature since it allows you to edit forms as if you were on the front end
- Pre-built form templates – sometimes plugins provide ready-made templates so you don’t have to make it from scratch all the time
- Multi-step forms – every plugin supports a single page simple form, let’s see how things are going with multi-step ones
- Multi-column layouts – allows adding input fields in several columns
- Multiple choice – allows your clients to choose more than one option
- Post-submission redirect – redirects the user to the link you specified after submitting the form
- Conditional logic – allows showing or hiding particular elements (i.g. buttons, or form sections) based on the selections user makes
- Data export – allows you to export entry submissions data
- Quizzes – you know, it’s like Instagram does. You pre-configure the right answer among the provided options
- Polls and surveys – do research among your site visitors. Results are usually automatically compiled into reports
- AJAX submitting – means that the page won’t reload after submitting
- Payments – allow linking the form to PayPal, Stripe, or other gateways
- reCAPTCHA – most common way for spam protection
Do you think I’ve missed some crucial features? Let me know in the comments below!
Integrations
- JetEngine
- Slack
- Trello
- HubSpot CRM
- Akismet
- Zapier
- Integromat
- WooCommerce
- GetResponse
- MailChimp
Honestly, this list can be almost endless. Each plugin has a different set of third-party tools it integrates with. The presence of this or that integration option does not make the plugin better or worse. It all depends on what you need.
The most important integration option for any plugin is Zapier and Integromat. Using them, you can connect the plugin to thousands of third-party services. These are CRM systems, email marketing programs, Google Drive, and much, much more.
Here are our rivals
I shortlisted the newest plugin, JetFormBuilder, and the seven most downloaded plugins from the WordPress directory – WPForms, Contact Form 7, Everest Forms, WP Fluent Forms, Formidable, Ninja Forms, and Kali Forms.
JetFormBuilder – Free / from $39
Launched at the beginning of 2021, JetFormBuilder became the first Gutenberg-only plugin by Crocoblock. It has a free version providing many advanced features and working with lots of dynamic data.
JetFormBuilder comes with 18 form fields, lots of post-submit action options, multi-step forms, calculated content, dynamic field values generation, and lots of other cool stuff. And I would like to separately mention that we have excellent customer support, unlike most other free plugins.
WPForms – from $39.50
WPForms is a great form builder and its free version is one of the most downloaded form builder plugins in the WordPress directory. Over 4 million installations! That being said, WPForms has excellent ratings, even though the free version provides only the most basic features.
But the paid one can please with the richness of the functionality: 100+ pre-built templates included, options for submitting multiple forms, user journey reports, and much more.
Contact Form 7 – $0
Contact Form 7 is probably the most well-known form builder. It has been on the market for a very long time, its interface is a little outdated, and it provides the most basic functions and the minimum number of integrations. And nevertheless, this plugin continues to enjoy popularity and love, as we see 5+ million active installations.
Maybe many people don't know is that Contact Form 7 has many extensions that are also available in the WordPress directory. With their help, this plugin becomes much more relevant, but still free.
Everest Forms – from $49
A very lightweight and intuitive plugin, one of those cases when the developers were not stingy to shove a bunch of interesting features even into the free version.
And the premium subscription of Everest Forms comes with a customizer of forms’ style, PDF form submission, custom CAPTCHA, and other interesting features.
Quick JetFormBuilder & WPForms & Contact Form 7 & Everest Forms Comparison:
Fluent Forms – from $59
Beginner-friendly, filled with convenient pre-configured options, modern form builder. WP Fluent Forms comes with an impressive number of 60+ pre-built form templates, 45+ input fields, custom CSS and JavaScript, and lots of other awesome features.
Read this article to find out a more detailed review of this plugin and many others as well.
Formidable Forms – from $49.50
Another great plugin suited for building complex forms with extra functionality. In addition to a very large number of features, Formidable Forms is also notable for its excellent and accessible documentation.
Among core features are dozens of templates divided into seven categories; the support of surveys, polls, and quizzes; an opportunity to import and export forms, entries, views, and many other things.
Ninja Forms – from $49.50
Ninja Forms is one of the few form builders that allow you to buy not only paid subscription plans but also addons separately. The free version is quite limited but enough to feel the joy of the beautiful Ninja Forms interface.
Each addon adds different features and integrations so it's a very convenient option if you need something precise to configure. Overall, this plugin comes with 40+ addons; 27+ field types; PayPal, Stripe, Elavon, and Recurly gateways; user analytics; etc.
Kali Forms – from $29
Kali Forms is a react-built WordPress form builder. It has a full-fledged free plugin and a premium version that is perfect for novice developers in terms of price and functionality. Thanks to drag & drop form builder, and form templates, it's easy to get started with the plugin, and everything else can be done in a couple of clicks as usual.
When you install a plugin, not all functions are open to you. To open them, you need to download addons through the dashboard interface. This is a convenient option for you to not get lost among the heap of unnecessary (for you) functions and not to burden the plugin and, accordingly, the site.
Fluent Forms & Formidable Forms & NinjaForms & KaliForms comparison:
Wrapping Up
Today we have taken a closer look at 8 popular form builders for WordPress. Some are free, some are cheap, some are not. Some plugins contain all possible functions, and some have modest functionality.
The truth is that you don't always need all the options at once, and often the most basic free plugin will do for a simple action you actually need.
This article has introductory information that will help you figure it out at the initial stage, but to make the final decision, I recommend you to study in detail the documentation for each plugin.